By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 7th 2010 10:26PM
Filed under: News, Politics, President Obama
Some have been asking
President Barack Obama to get tough with BP, and while
I don't think the president is getting as tough with the company as he can, it certainly can't be denied that he is using tougher language. In an interview set to air on '
Good Morning America,'
President Obama stated that he is "looking for whose ass to kick" in response to the recent crisis.
I am not sure how often the president has been deliberately recorded using this kind of language, but the words will certainly fire up his base. I doubt that this was an inadvertent slip of the tongue, but rather an effort for Obama to appear to be the tough leader that the nation has been requesting to deal with one of the worst environmental crises in American history.
The move is a good one for Obama, making him appear to be edgy and assertive, rather than conservative and passive. He has moved himself to the left, placing himself and his administration firmly within the crowd of those who appear to want BP to pay dearly for the crisis. While one can certainly argue that the move is probably more hype than substance, it allows Obama to fulfill his objective of distancing himself from BP and not shouldering the blame.
The recent crisis continues to devastate the Gulf Coast, as more than 75,000 jobs are expected to be lost when it's all said and done. The $60 billion tourism industry for the state of Florida is in jeopardy as the oil arrives to the shores of its sunny beaches. To make matters worse, the 1990
Oil Pollution Act caps liability for spills at $75 million, hardly enough to begin cleaning up this much oil from the oceans. All the while, President Obama is not quite able to hold BP accountable, because his administration has been the biggest recipient of campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry.
So, while President Obama might be "looking for whose ass to kick," BP might be able to retort, "Mr. President, we actually own your ass." It's going to be an interesting battle.
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Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book 'Black American Money.' To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here. 
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Comments: (20)
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By: TruthBeTold on 6/08/2010 1:40PM
Who said they were intelligent and why are these racist on a black site? Trying to be down right?! LMAO.
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By: Marlene Franklin on 6/08/2010 9:29AM
The title of your article should read: BARACK OBAMA "LOOKING FOR WHOSE ASS TO KISS" IN GULF REGION SPILL.
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By: ooozzzzz on 6/08/2010 9:26AM
"Looking for Whose Ass to Kick"? President Obama, you don't have to look far.
They are standing right in front of you: Oil companies, BP, your current energy policy deregulations (written and approved (in secret) by VP Chaney & the Bush adminstration and government lack of oversight and regulation.
Oil companies have the grren light by the Bush/Chaney government: allowing investment of multi-billions in the advanced technology to drill farther and deeper for oil underwater and little or no money spent in advanced technology or back-up plans to prevent this type of disaster.
The Blow Out preventer is just piece of machinery that will fail to perform just like any other piece of equipment and by not conducing oversight; proper periodic maintenance checks and inspections on the Blowout Preventer and having no new technology to handle oil spills is the ass that he should be looking for to kick.
And the drilling of alternate oil wells (required by other countries) to re-route oil in this situation? They were given the option to either do it or not.
The only thing that they have is old equipment; booms and air sprayed dispersants that are old methods that were used during the Exxon Valdez oil spill (which was an oil tanker and not a oil leak from the earth) and no improvements have been made since that time since the oil companies were not forced to improve in this area of oil recovery.
Instead, they were given the option by the Bush/Chaney goverment de-regulation to do whatever they want. And as we all know, if you don't have to do something and spend money, nine times out of ten, you won't.
And the scary part? There are over 400 oil rigs (from several major oil companies) in the Gulf Coast and hundreds more on both the oceans of the East and West Coast and no one knows how many oil rigs have the same problem & issues as the BP oil rig that blew up.
You don't hear a peep out of Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Conoco or any other major oil companies regarding this oil leak because they are probably just as guilty, playing the same greedy oil games and they know that it could have been any one of their oil rigs, instead of BP, in the center of this mess and are hoping & praying that one of their rigs don't blow up.
I'll bet that they are scrambling their azzes off right now spending big money, checking and making sure that their oil rigs are all working properly and that they have all the proper prevention measures in place since they follows the same rules as BP.
And this disaster is all from one oil rig out there in the ocean.
There is plenty ass to kick but the problems in the oil industry but it will require much more that than ass kicking to fix this. The pending problems have been approved, in place, huge and widespread.
This entire situation is a monster and it may happen again. It's just a matter of time.
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By: jb on 6/08/2010 8:52PM
BP will be bankrupt???? and??? they caused it, they should clean it up. What about all those people who are losing their businesses etc. because of this? nobody cares about them I guess.
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By: Jane on 6/08/2010 11:17PM
President Barak Obama needs the support of Hard working Americans to stop the Hardly working fast food media approach to covering any story involving this President and his administraion:)Vote for Progressive Democrats in 2010!And let's get to kicking some>>>>>>Remember what fast food did to our nations health. So let's create a positive forum for the President. Do not responsed to the trolls. And get out the Vote in November!
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By: de on 6/09/2010 12:54AM
does this mean the Prez is going to "kick his own ass...." since Obama and numerous members of his staff have consistently said "...we(the White House) have been on top of this spill since day 1...."? Doesn't that mean the White House is responsible for the ineffective way the oil spill is being handled???
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By: hilda banks on 6/09/2010 12:00PM
I am so appalled at all the criticism being leveled at our President. It is so disheartening that President Obama hasnot changed since he was sworn in as President but the American people have changed. There is no loyalty or support from the left(black&white). We expect disloyalty from the right but your own base!! Show passion,get angry and do what? Why are you people trying to make him something that he is not? Why can't he govern the way he should? He is not an actor on stage but I suppose if he was he would get more respect. None of us could begin to handle the massive events that are going on in our world. We can sit back and criticize but we know that he inherited every problem that he has encountered and he specifically told us that this would not be easy, that it would take time. Nothing has changed but the electorate. If he was "street" as Bill Maher says he should be lifting his shirt and showing a gun,he would get killed(more criticized) than he has been. God, I don't know how he sleeps at night. He is trying to go uphill in a wagon and nobody is pushing the wagon. Get a life!!
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By: george on 6/09/2010 12:33PM
What did you expect from a bunch whiners.
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By: marva lightbourne on 6/09/2010 2:15PM
well prez Obama start KICKING ALL THEM INVOLVE WITH THIS MESS >>"ASSES"..while we know B.P. is the major shareholder, along with the HALLIBURTON GROUP,I think at this point, B.p. is getting its DREAM TEAM OF LAWYERS together to do at least amount of responibility it can get away with!!..something tangible/contractual MUST be put in place to hold them( BP) to thier word, to do the right thing by the citizens of the 4 states being affected by this( fishermens). retribution to the 11 men killed and thier children, wildlife clean-up, and all the other details...do not allow them to WIGGLE out of thier responsibility!!..if push comes to shove, and they seem not to be reponding approprately to this HISTORIC oil spill diaster >> then DEMAND B.p. "cease& detest".. and let us takeover, and give them the bill for years to come!!..WON'T BE MAKING ANY PROFITS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE PEOPLE!!!.. POWER TO THE PEOPLE ALWAYS.!!
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By: Catrice Jones on 8/07/2010 1:56PM
The oil spill in the Gulf was an accident. The persons responsible for the accident seemed to have died in the explosion. According to news reports, most of the spill from the explosion has been removed from the ocean and placed in the appropriate containers. Offshore drilling is a new beginning for the oil industry. The oil industry has relocated to a new gulf. This means the oil industry will meet new management.
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